Schalke match preview

…two former Werder players will play play for Schalke on Sunday?

 Two former South American SVW players will enjoy a reunion on Sunday. Naldo made 173 Bundesliga appearances for the Green-Whites between 2005 and 2012. The centre back hit the net 22 times in a Werder shirt. The Brazilian moved from VfL Wolfsburg to the Royal Blues in the summer. Franco Di Santo moved to Schalke from Werder in the summer of 2015. After a tough first year in Gelsenkirchen, the Argentine is slowly returning to form and will be hoping for a place in the starting line-up against his former club on Sunday.

…despite losing their last two games, Werder have a positive record to uphold?

Even though the recent 3-1 defeats to both RB Leipzig and SC Freiburg were disappointing, Werder will be looking to keep up their scoring record. Since matchday 2 of the Bundesliga, SVW have scored at least one goal in every game they have played. Only RB Leipzig and FC Bayern München have a longer series of games in which they have scored.

…one key player could be making his first appearance of the season? 

Slowly but surely, Werder’s list of injuries is beginning to clear up. Max Kruse completed his first squad training session on Wednesday, just one day after Claudio Pizarro returned to first team training. Should everything run smoothly, the Peruvian could be in line to return to the squad for Sunday’s encounter. Head coach Alex Nouri did not rule out such an event, but was also keen not to give too much away. “We have to find the right balance and be careful about how we deal with the situation. We have a couple more training sessions before Sunday and we will have to wait and see how Claudio feels after that. We will speak to both him and the medical staff and then make a sensible decision,” explained Nouri.